Scottish Executive

Education

Mr Duncan McNeil (Greenock and Inverclyde) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what resources will be made available to Inverclyde Council to meet the commitment in A Partnership for a Better Scotland to increase teachers and support staff numbers, in order to reduce class sizes to a maximum of 20 in S1 and S2 for mathematics and English and 25 in P1, and the number of specialists working across the boundary between primary and secondary education; when such resources will be made available, and when these additional teachers and support staff will start their employment.

Peter Peacock: We will announce our plans, including funding arrangements, when detailed discussions with local authorities and initial teacher education providers have been completed.

Employment

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the current rate is of unemployment.

Mr Jim Wallace: According to the Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate for Scotland was 5.8% for the three months up to April 2003.

Employment

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) women between the ages of 50 and 60 and (b) men between the ages of 50 and 65 are currently not in full-time employment.

Mr Jim Wallace: In Scotland, there are 231,000 women between the ages of 50 and 60 not working in full-time employment and 199,000 men between the ages of 50 and 65 not working in full-time employment.

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements will be put in place to deal with requests for information until the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 comes into force.

Tavish Scott: The Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information , which informs decisions made on whether or not to disclose information, will remain in place until the statutory Freedom of Information regime is brought into force on 1 January 2005.

  Copies of a report providing statistics on the operation of the code during 2002 have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 28052). The report has also been published on the Scottish Executive’s website.

Further Education

Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration it has given to the further education funding system in England, under the Learning and Skills Council, which awards funds to institutions in instalments throughout the academic year in accordance with the retention of students throughout this period.

Mr Jim Wallace: None. The Scottish Executive does not determine the methodology for allocating funds to further education colleges. In Scotland, the Scottish Further Education Funding Council is the statutory body responsible for such matters.

Genetically Modified Crops

Mr Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funds it has made available to extend the coverage in Scotland of the United Kingdom's public debate on genetic modification.

Ross Finnie: The public debate is organised by an independent steering board at arms length from Government. The UK Government and the devolved administrations are providing a total of £500,000 to fund public debates across all parts of the UK, including Scotland. It is for the steering board to determine the structure of the debate and how to use the resources available to it.

Historic Scotland

Mr Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will seek the views of stakeholders during the review of the structure and functions of Historic Scotland.

Mr Frank McAveety: The Scottish Executive has today written to a broad range of organisations and individuals working in areas relevant to the historic environment in Scotland seeking views on the structure and functions of Historic Scotland.

  Copies of the letter and the consultation paper will be available on the Scottish Executive website and copies have been placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 27826).

  The results of the review and ministers’ conclusions in the light of the review will be made available to the Parliament.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-3985 by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 November 2001 and the announcement by the Minister for Health and Community Care on 30 January 2003 in response to the Audit Scotland report, Hospital cleaning , what progress has been made in implementing the recommendations made in the report.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Health Department has written to all NHS trusts stressing the need to respond positively to the recommendations of the Audit Scotland report and asking for copies of their individual action plans. Progress with implementing the recommendations will be monitored by their auditors. NHS Quality Improvement Scotland is expected to review performance against the Cleaning Services Standard next year.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken to measure improvements in hospital hygiene in hospitals that have brought cleaning services back "in house" following the announcement by the Minister for Health and Community Care on 30 January 2003 in response to the Audit Scotland report, Hospital cleaning .

Malcolm Chisholm: All NHS trusts have agreed action plans designed to help them achieve the Cleaning Services Standards set by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. Progress will be monitored by their auditors and inspections will be carried out by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland next year.

Industry

Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive who the members are of the Scottish Manufacturing Steering Group.

Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the recommendations of the Scottish Manufacturing Steering Group are published.

Murdo Fraser (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Manufacturing Steering Group has recommended the abolition of business rates.

Mr Jim Wallace: The full membership of the Scottish Manufacturing Steering Group was listed in their report, Nurturing Wealth Creation: A Report by the Scottish Manufacturing Steering Group, which was published in February 2003. A copy can be found on the Executive’s website at:

  www.scotland.gov.uk/nurturingwealthcreation.

  The Executive responded to the report in March 2003 and copies of that response can be found in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 27012).

Justice

Miss Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many fiscal fines have been offered in each of the last four years.

Colin Boyd QC: The figures for each of the last four financial years are as follows:

  


Financial Year 
  

1999-2000 
  

2000-01 
  

2001-02 
  

2002-03 
  



Number of fines offered 
  

35,329 
  

34,945 
  

33,229 
  

34,732

Justice

Miss Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether fiscal fines have been extended to cover a wider range of common law offences and, if so, which offences they now cover.

Colin Boyd QC: Procurators fiscal are authorised by section 302 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 to issue conditional offers of a fixed penalty (commonly referred to as fiscal fines) as an alternative to prosecution in relation to any offence in respect of which an alleged offender could competently be tried before a district court.

  Under section 7(8) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, the district court does not have jurisdiction to try any of the following common law offences:

  (a) murder, culpable homicide, robbery, rape, wilful fireraising or attempted wilful fireraising;

  (b) theft by housebreaking, housebreaking with intent to steal;

  (c) theft or reset, falsehood fraud or wilful imposition, breach of trust or embezzlement, where the value of the property is an amount exceeding level 4 on the standard scale;

  (d) assault causing fracture of a limb, assault with intent to ravish, assault to the danger of life, or assault by stabbing;

  (e) uttering forged documents or uttering forged bank or banker’s notes or offences under the acts relating to coinage.

  Section 7(8) has not been amended since it came into force in 1996. Confidential guidance has been issued to procurators fiscal regarding their use of fiscal fines as an alternative to prosecution, which includes directions as to situations in which procurators fiscal must not issue a fiscal fine. These include cases involving overtones of sexual behaviour or racial motivation or aggravation and cases involving the possession of Class A drugs.

Prison Service

Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether a higher proportion of the population in Scotland is jailed than in most other western European countries and, if so, what the reasons are for this position.

Cathy Jamieson: The information available is given in the following table.

  Prison Population, Rate Per 100,000 Population by Jurisdiction, as at 1 September 2001

  


Jurisdiction 
  

Rate Per 100,000 Population in 2001 
  



Portugal 
  

128 
  



England and Wales1


126 
  



Scotland 
  

121 
  



Spain3


102 
  



Germany4


98 
  



Italy 
  

96 
  



Netherlands6


93 
  



Turkey 
  

84 
  



Belgium2


83 
  



Ireland (Eire) 
  

83 
  



France5


77 
  



Greece 
  

76 
  



Switzerland 
  

71 
  



Sweden7


68 
  



Finland3


60 
  



Denmark 
  

58 
  



Northern Ireland 
  

51 
  



  Notes:

  1. At 31 August.

  2. Average daily population.

  3. At 31 December.

  4. At 31 January.

  5. Metropolitan and overseas departments.

  6. At 1 March 2002.

  7. At 30 September.

  The reasons behind the differences identified by the table are complex. Differences in sentencing policies, crime rates and public attitudes towards the use of imprisonment will influence the imprisonment rate.

Scottish Natural Heritage

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many hedgehogs have been culled as a result of Scottish Natural Heritage activity on the Uists and Benbecula.

Allan Wilson: Sixty-six hedgehogs were culled on North Uist between 7 April and 23 May 2003.

Scottish Natural Heritage

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost has been to Scottish Natural Heritage of the cull on the Uists and Benbecula.

Allan Wilson: This is a matter for Scottish Natural Heritage. The Information requested is not held centrally.

Scottish Natural Heritage

Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether Scottish Natural Heritage’s Uist Wader Project has involved using dogs for hunting hedgehogs.

Allan Wilson: The use of dogs for the exclusive purpose of locating hedgehogs was trialled on North Uist this year by the Uist Wader Project, a partnership comprising Scottish Natural Heritage, the RSPB and the Scottish Executive. The dogs were accompanied by trained handlers and were not used to hunt or capture hedgehogs.

Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how interested organisations will be able to become conservation bodies for the purpose of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003.

Hugh Henry: The Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 provides a property law regime for enforcing conditions in the title deeds of land which safeguard conservation interests. It provides for a conservation body, prescribed by Scottish ministers, to be able to enforce a particular condition affecting a certain piece of land. Both the conditions and the body will have to seek to protect, for the benefit of the public:

  the architectural or historical characteristics of the land (which includes buildings), or

  any other special characteristics of the land (including a special characteristic derived from the flora, fauna or general appearance of the land).

  These burdens can be used when the conservation body is selling land, but imposes a condition to ensure that the conservation characteristics of the property are not lost.

  It will also be possible for conservation bodies to preserve existing feudal burdens as conservation burdens, provided that they meet the criteria for conservation burdens. The deadline for saving burdens will be the Appointed Day on which the feudal system is finally abolished. We have already announced that this will be on 28 November 2004.

  The Executive is currently in the process of inviting applications from those interested in becoming conservation bodies. Those who would like to be considered should contact the following address:

  Iain Hockenhull, Civil Law Division, 2 West Rear, St Andrew's House, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG.

  Phone/e-mail: 0131 244 8228; iain.hockenhull@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

  The text of the act and its Explanatory Notes may be found at:

  http://www.scotland-legislation.hmso.gov.uk